Michael Slager, choking back tears, said he felt 'total fear' when a black motorist he had been chasing wrestled away his Taser and pointed the weapon at him.

Slager, a fired North Charleston patrolman, testified in his own defense on Tuesday at his murder trial.

Slager, who is white, faces 30 years to life if convicted in the shooting death of Walter Scott as he fled a traffic stop in April 2015. The shooting was captured on cellphone video that stunned the nation.

Michael Slager choked back tears on Tuesday as he testified during his murder trial

Slager faces the possibility of 30 years to life in prison if he's convicted of murdering Walter Scott

On the stand on Tuesday, Slager said he felt 'total fear' when Scott stole his Taser and pointed it at him

Slager testified that he was going to give Scott a warning ticket for a broken taillight when Scott ran from his car.

He says he fired his stun gun three times at Scott. He says the two wrestled and Scott got control of his stun gun.

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He says that's when he felt 'total fear that Scott didn't stop.' So when Scott broke free and began to run away again, he says he did what he was trained to do, firing at Scott 'until the threat was stopped.'

Walter Scott is pictured above. His family have said he may have run from Slager because he was behind on child support payments and didn't want to be arrested for that

Slager was fired from the North Charleston Police Department and charged with murder when the video became public.

Scott's family has said Scott may have run from the scene because he was behind on child support and afraid of going back to jail.

Slager, who has been free on bail since January and who has given few media interviews since the incident, is the 18th defense witness in a trial that has entered its fifth week. A jury of eleven white people and one black person is hearing the case.

The defense contends that the short video widely seen in the media and on the internet doesn't tell the whole story. The defense is laying out a case that the officer told Scott to stop and repeatedly warned that he was going to use his stun gun before Scott wrestled with the officer and got control of Slager's Taser.

One expert in crime scene re-creation testified for the defense last week that it appears from the video that Scott threw a Taser as he confronted the officer seconds before the shooting. That segment of the video is blurry and shaky.

The jury has seen 3-D computer re-creations of the scene presented by witnesses for both the defense and the prosecution. Judge Clinton Newman is also weighing a defense request to allow the jurors to visit the scene of the shooting.